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Adrenaline flooded her system. “Please. We need to get it. I can convince her to give it to us.”
Connor cursed under his breath. “Dax, watch my back. If I go down, you protect her. Fuck the note.” He got to his knees and then lifted her up into his arms, turning immediately. He held her close and started to run.
He was offering himself as a target, his strong, broad back protecting her completely. Chaos was starting to erupt as one of the nurses realized something had gone terribly wrong. Shouts began and several residents were crying, but Connor plowed on. He simply sprinted toward the building and inside. He didn’t put her down until they were in Natalia’s room, and then he stood guard alongside Dax.
Lara stepped inside. Mrs. Simms’s eyes widened as Lara threw back the curtain.
“I’m afraid I’m going to need that note now.”
SIXTEEN
Connor closed and locked the door, feeling safer than he had in days. Passing that damn note over to Roman had been a relief. It had taken hours to get the cops off his back, but he hadn’t wanted that note in his house. He didn’t want it anywhere near Lara.
“I can’t believe you handed it over to him,” Lara complained as she picked up a very hyperactive Lincoln and hustled him to the backyard. She let him out and closed the door behind him before frowning and turning Connor’s way.
If he didn’t smooth things over, he would be in the proverbial doghouse right next to Lincoln. “I explained why.”
“Because Roman can get a translator faster than you. You’re CIA, Connor. This kind of stuff should be your stock-in-trade.”
“Ex-CIA.” Now he could see that it would have been more helpful to quit after this case was over, but the damage had been done. “My security clearance has already been torched and I already called in favors for the INS paperwork. I’m sorry, princess. I’m afraid I’m a civilian now.”
“You’ll never be a civilian, Connor. You were born a warrior.”
And she was a woman who wanted peace for the world. “Unfortunately, I don’t speak Russian and that whole note was written in Cyrillic.”
She turned a little thoughtful. “It looked like a list to me.”
“You have to be prepared that note we risked our lives for might end up being a shopping list or a recipe for borscht. She wasn’t in her right head in the end.” Connor had gotten a little chill when she’d looked at him. Her eyes had lit up as though she’d known him. He’d seen recognition in those eyes.
“What do you think she meant about Sergei destroying the country?”
Again, something about that speech of hers had set off his radar. “I don’t know. We’ll know more after we get the translations back. That was awfully smart of you.”
“No, it wasn’t. You handed my phone over. Now I don’t have one, Connor.” She let Lincoln back in and locked the door before stalking his way, her flats slapping against his marbled floors in obvious irritation. “And we didn’t risk our lives to get that note. You risked your life. You made sure that if the assassin took another shot, he would have killed you.”
Connor shrugged. “I likely would have crushed you to death when I fell on you so your life was definitely at risk.”
“Don’t joke about that.” She stopped right in front of him. “Why did you do that? Why did you really give up the evidence to Roman?”
He’d known what he would do the minute she’d shown him that odd, handwritten note Mrs. Simms had given her. He hadn’t wanted her to hold on to it. He hadn’t wanted her to be the target. There was no way he would be able to keep her out of the investigation forever, but she didn’t have to be the person holding the evidence. When he’d dropped Dax off at Roman’s, he’d made the decision to put a couple of layers of protection around Lara. There was no way he could take her off the case completely. She would walk away from him and still be in danger. But he could make sure that she wasn’t the primary target.
Roman had been more than happy to take on the task.
“I did it so they won’t come after you. They can shift their focus now.”
“The Bratva?”
“Yes, the Russian mob who keeps sending assassins your way.” The minute he’d realized Natalia Kuilikov was dead, his one and only thought had been getting to Lara. It hadn’t been Natalia he’d seen in that moment. He’d seen Lara’s beautiful face with a bullet hole, her unique light snuffed out. He’d gone a little crazy. His first thought should have been finding the assassin and bringing him in for questioning, but nothing had mattered more than getting to her, putting his body over hers so he took any bullet coming her way. He’d been willing to die, to let Dax die, and now to put Roman in harm’s way all in order to protect one woman.
Having feelings sucked. It had been easier when he didn’t care.
“It begs the question . . .” Lara began, her eyes turning thoughtful.
He didn’t like how focused she was on this case. She’d been perfect with the police. She’d charmed them and gotten teary at exactly the right times. Her hand had been in his, but the minute the detectives released them, she’d pounced all over the case again. It was making him crazy. “What question?”
“They knew where she was.”
He’d thought about that, too. “It’s possible they followed us.”
“Do you really believe that? Even her roommate talked about the fact that she thought they were watching her. She said she knew they were always around her. Why would they know she was there but never act?”
“Until we showed up.” He’d thought about it on the drive home.
“Why not just kill her? Why wait until she could possibly talk?”
He knew why the Agency would do it. “Two reasons. First, her ‘insurance policy,’ whatever that turns out to be. Second, there’s a certain honor among thieves.”
“What does that mean?”
How to explain it to her? “I was in the same business, just an opposite side of the coin. If an agent knew something so important that the country’s stability was at stake, one of two things would happen. Either the Agency would immediately and with all due care put the operative down, or they would watch and wait. It might be a sign of respect that they’ve hidden her. She talked about what she sacrificed. If that’s true and they respected what she did for the cause, they might let her be until such time as she threatened the operation. Me sitting beside her threatened the operation. They would have known about her mental condition. They would have understood the possibility that she could talk to someone she shouldn’t. She was dead the moment we struck up a conversation with her. They let her live until she became a liability. The other thought I had was that she was important to Sergei, whoever that is. Maybe her long-lost husband, maybe a lover? He was willing to let her live until he couldn’t afford it anymore. Hopefully, we’ll know more when we translate that tape and her note.” He took her hands. “Lara, we should sit down and talk for a while. Let me make us a drink.”
She stared at him warily. “About what?”
Was she really going to push him to the limit? “Us.”
She pulled away. “Talking doesn’t change anything.”
Did she think on any level that he would allow her to walk away without really talking about what had happened between them? “Sit down, Lara. We’re going to discuss what happens from here on out.”
“I don’t want to talk.” She moved into his space, her body slinking up to his. There was no other word to describe it. Her breasts pressed up, her legs tangled with his. “I want what I talked about earlier. It’s time for bed, Connor. It’s time to get what you promised me.”
“What I promised you?”
“You said I could be with you while I’m here.” She pressed her chest against his and met his stare. “I don’t want to sleep alone tonight. I want to forget everything from the last two days. I just want to feel for a while.”
She sank her fingers into his hair and leaned in, her mouth so close to his. He couldn’t wait. He kissed
her long and slow. She might think she didn’t care about him or could fuck him out of her system, but she was fooling herself. The minute she let him in, he would hold on to her so tight. The real Lara was underneath all the hurt and he intended to find her.
Pleasure. Intimacy. They were gifts he could give her. She wouldn’t be able to hold back. If she thought he would just throw her against the wall and fuck her hard, she was so wrong. He intended to show her just how good it could be between them. He intended to make it so good she would never want to leave him.
The minute her mouth softened, he invaded. He breached her with his tongue, sliding deep to find hers. She was tentative at first, almost shy. After a moment’s sweet coaxing, she moaned into the kiss and gave as good as she got.
